


Stress and Science

by Sociopathbrony



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, Touch-Starved, sociology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 17:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16371650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sociopathbrony/pseuds/Sociopathbrony
Summary: Back in castle heterodtne before everyone was freed a social scientist picks up on a few signs from a friend of his regarding some touch depreivation that could be easily treated.





	Stress and Science

**Author's Note:**

> From this prompt :  
> https://girlgeniuskinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/492.html?thread=91884#cmt91884

Getwin Mittelmind replaced the floor light that was the base for the basic moving mechanics, like the door or the secret door, the lights, in the room. Fraulein Snaug had long since passed out, unable to keep up the third day awake aiding her spark in his assignments around the castle. She clutched a wrench in her hand as he picked her up to go find Mezzasalma because the other man was likely still up on his project and realistically, perhaps they should sleep lest social relations between the inmates got any worse because a few sparks decided sleep was for the weak. Mittelmind discovered him to be partially dangling, partially being a spider ten feet off the floor, tangled in the wires coming from a panel opening widened by a broken in hole in the wall.  
“How are you getting on up there?” he called up.  
Mezzasalma cursed quietly as he struggled at pulling more length of wire out, trying to get it untangled from his mechanical legs trying to keep their grip on the wall. The little bit of moon light that glinted through the small window of the nearly empty solitary confinement room reflected of the metal and danced across the room as the wires finally were loose enough to unwind them from his joints and move to the side of the opening, grumbling all the while.  
“Not well in the least, if you haven't noticed.” he finally answered, spewing venom in his words. Mittelmind knew they weren't necessarily directed at him, there were signs. “Something is wrong with these god forsaken wires but I can't see anything beyond the panel opening and I already caved in part of the wall that I could, the rest of it is reinforced with solid steel of something. I've been working at it all day and I probably would be done by now if i had a minion but there's no ladders in this bloody hell box.”  
Mittelmind tried to keep up Mezzasalma’s mold with a cheerful voice. He set Snaug down in a fairly clean looking area and came closer to being under Mezzasalma. “I'd offer my loyal minion but she passed out, and a growing girl like her needs her rest. But I will gladly offer my own aid, im sure I can make at least a poorly basic pulley system with the materials here.”  
Mezzasalma sneered at the idea of Mittelmind having another thing to be smug about, just a bit, before giving in. He crawled up to the ceiling and cut down the rope that hung from it for who knows what purpose, and stringing one end boringly through a hook of many on the wall that were there for an equally clear purpose. Some loops were tied at the end for Mittelmind to use as stable points and a rudimentary hand cranked pull system that stays in place once it's moved. He soon joined the other by the panel.  
“Oh, that is dark, one moment.” He turned a dial on his panel and a light shown on the the enclave enough to vaguely see, leaning closer in to illuminate the wires better. Mezzasalma gave the slightest signs on confliction that only a social scientist would pick up. He bent around the wall and looked at the newly exposed wiring to see a piece of debris had likely fallen straight through the grouping of wires and cables leaving them all frayed with the unwound wires crossing over others and connections broken.  
“Well no wonder this area is down. All the necessary connections are completely gone.” Mittelmind noted.  
Mezzasalma just tried fiddling with it silently. “Crap, we need some of the regulated tools.”  
“Well,” Mittelmind tried a test and put the hand that wasn't keeping hold of his rope on Mezzasalma’s closest shoulder and could feel him tense slightly below it. He casually removed it but the tenseness didn’t cease. He smiled in that sparkish way of new data being found. “I suppose we'll have to get them tomorrow then.”  
A spider leg kicked out as he grimaced his teeth and it hit the wall. “Nothing! All the work for nothing!”  
“Oh don't be like that.” He moved his hand like a spider up the spider man’s arm. “Stress has benefactors of enhanced physical and cognitive capabilities and increased motivation but also lowered immune system and who knows what you could catch here. Plus it can be spread to other fairly easily in transference and with a small group in close quarters as we are, that would significantly upset the social atmosphere worse than it is. It would disrupt the current order, the little of it that exists.”  
Mezzasalma slapped shook his hand off. “There has to be something I can do. You can very well leave if you want if I'm apparently annoying you.”  
“Oh no you don’t. Come one.” he started reverse cranking the mechanism and lowering himself down. “From what I've observed of you, I know some proven that would help.” the harmonics leaked in as the smile returned and his green tint goggles were highlighted by the little light in the darkness. His chest plate glowed as he lowered himself down and Mezzasalma gave up on the uncompleted task in favour of the more exciting, or at least less stressful, endeavor that Mittelmind offered.  
They met on the floor and Mittlemind carried his loyal minion to her bed with just a smile before leading Mezzasalma to his own. The mechanical man followed him in and watched confusedly as he sat at the head of the bed pressed against the wall, the leg closest to the side wall bent at the knee and the other down. “Well come here, then” he nodded to the bed. Mezzasalma crawled with all his legs onto the not particularly soft mattress and look Mittelmind deep in the eyes. He noticed Mezzasalma’s reactions immediately, the pupil dilation, the shallow rapid breathing, and he could pick up traces of the quicked thrum of his heart thanks to the mechanized hearing. “Oh you flatter me, but I had something else in mind. Right here.” he patted the bed in front of him.  
He looked confused but curiously obliged, warily trying not to be touched. He let out a short yell of surprise when Mittelmind got bored of waiting and pulled his back against his pale chest. It was warm, was the first thing Mezzasalma noted, at least compared to his cold metal lower half. Not as warm as a properly living being, but still sent a wave of relief he hadn't known he needed over him.  
“Simple case of what seemed to be touch deprivation and avoidance. Easily fixed if there's a readily available subject willing to act as a source for the needed contact.”  
“I'm sorry what?” he struggled a bit against the tight grip and it loosened but not enough to ever allow escape.  
“Well everyone needs human contact. Being in this environment where all out co workers are at each other's throat, while providing great data, is not conducive to the contact some or most people need.” He rested his head atop the head of dark hair and rubbed circles on Mezzasalma’s hand that he could reach.  
“So what's your excuse. How come you're not affected? Why bother do this?” there was an attempt to put accusation or perhaps disdain in the words but it was washed over by the comfort of being close to anyone.  
“Oh my dear Caractacus! I have my dear Hexalina Snaug! Why do you think I kept her all those years ago? I couldn't bear to let such a preciously social creature like her go.” he huffed. “And of course I'd do this, if I were to not what would my work be for? And, i must admit, I do find i tend to be a bit magnanimous at times, like with the orphans i would-”  
“You've mentioned.” Mezzasalma cut him off. “So this isn't going any further than, cuddling I dare call it?” Actually he was fine with that. Being half mechanical spider tended to put people off of being near him, being a spark made it worse, being in the castle, well by then he stopped realizing that people avoided him.  
“Oh, no! I never care for sexual activities, in life or in my current state of living. It's assumed inherit relation to romantic feeling and how I decided that they were separate is a main reason I got into sociology in the first place, to see if they could be seperated. What of you? You don't have the parts for it anymore, realistically you shouldn't feel arousal.”  
“Well no,” he shrugged, “but now it's more just like a state of mind. I still want it, just not down there.”  
Mittelmind did that smile again and moved a hand up to Mezzaslama’s chest, lightly rubbing over a nipple through the heavy fabric of his vest. “Like this?”  
“Eh, maybe another time. I'm actually really enjoying just sitting here. Normally I'm pretty cold, cause, the legs.” By this time, the half bodied spark had calmed down from the fugue induced stress significantly, his eyes almost kept slowly closing, not surprising given the bags and dark circles beneath them.  
“Well whenever you'd like to come back, I'm always up for a good cuddle. And if you were to want someone warmer, I doubt Fraulein Snaug would object to a ‘wyrm pile’ as she once called it.” he moved his head and started brushing through the dark hair.  
“Hmmmm… maybe” his eyes slid closed. Mittelmind laughed maniacally very quietly to himself. It was nice to have another warm body to press close to. Ever since he died, it had been cold. This new development also opened up a multitude of possibilities such as a spark’s extent of power over another, or why it seemed dear professor Caractacus here was confident he would have all his organs in the morning. And how the production of oxytocin comes into play with social bonding depending on the number in thegroup. But that could wait for now.  
Technically he didn't need to sleep, being dead and all, so he leaned back against the wall with the spider man's torso on his chest like a poorly made but warm blanket and drifted in a semi conscious serenity as he absently stroked the shorter man's soft hair.


End file.
